The research flow of this chair is on the exploration and exploitation of marine compounds, materials and biomimetics to face current problematic societal issues related to human health and marine environment. Lowering the devastating impact of the emerging pollutants in the marine environment is a major challenge in the 21st century.

Oceans are an extraordinary and unexploited source of natural compounds with specific and very interesting biological, physicochemical and structural properties. Although very promising, a considerable amount of these compounds are still scarcely exploited. In this context, this chair focuses on the blue and red biotechnologies by:Susana Fernandes, MANTA principal investigator

(2) looking into particular features and phenomena of marine animals and plants as inspiration for the design and development of bio-inspired and functional (bio)materials targeting cosmetic, medical and packaging applications.

Once developed, most of these materials will be used by humans or/and in contact with marine environment. Thus, the impact of these new materials and/or their metabolites on human health as well as on the aquatic media will also be addressed.

To develop this 5-year chair, we are a motivated and multidisciplinary team composed by the PI, 3 post-doctoral researchers and 4 PhD students in close collaboration with national and international academic researchers as well as industrial and institutional partners.